Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) has defended the amount of time it is taking to build a second bridge at Moama-Echuca.

The existing bridge was built in 1879 and is reaching capacity.

Deniliquin Mayor, Lindsay Renwick, says after close to 50 years of pushing for a new river crossing over the Murray River, it is disgraceful the project has not happened yet.

RMS South West Regional Manager, Lindsay Tanner, says building a bridge is a huge task, which demands community consultation and environmental considerations.

"I can't speak for the last 45 years, all I can tell you is the work that's going on to date is progressing on track as per expectations on both New South Wales and VIC Roads timelines," he said.

I can't speak for the last 45 years, all I can tell you is the work that's going on to date is progressing on track as per expectations on both New South Wales and VIC Roads timelines... I don't think the planning is unusually protracted.

RMS South West Regional Manager, Lindsay Tanner

"So once we get to a point where we have and agreed position in terms of the alignment and the environmental issues have been considered then we'll take the planning to the next stage but I don't think the planning is unusually protracted."

Mr Tanner says there is no timeline for when construction on the bridge could start, but says a second crossing will help to limit the number of vehicles using the existing bridge, which is carrying around 21,000 cars a day.

"The Victorian authority is project managing that project and they're doing some work on some environmental effects statement which is to consider the environmental impact of the bridge on different locations, so different alignments of the bridge as it crosses the river and impacts on the Victorian landscape," he said.

"The expectation from our perspective as stakeholders in the project team, will be that somewhere towards the end of this calendar year there may will be an outcome from the environmental effects statement on the Victorian side that'll then give us some indication as to potentially some preferred alignment.

"But in terms of actually delivering a bridge that's some years off I suspect."